[ietf-provreg] EPP domain:transfer

[Gerhard Winkler <gerhard.winkler@univie.ac.at>]

Hi Scott et al.,

in .AT we are currently discussing how different business processes can
be mapped on standard EPP. We didn't encounter many problems and
most of our specialities can be solved with extensions.

One of the open things is the domain:transfer behavior. We have a special
process for this (see below) which cannot be mapped to the standard.


For a domain transfer in .AT we need authorization of the registrant.
Therefore we have designed a special process:
- the registrar has to initiate a domain transfer
- the registry sends a token to the registrant
- the registrant has to forward this token to the registrar
- the registrar has to send the token back to the registry in
  combination with the domain transfer information

Due to this process we need two steps for the domain transfer
(token request and transaction itself).

The token can be defined with EPP extensions easily. But we couldn't
find a nice solution for the two step transfer.
The problem is that transfer op-codes are defined in epp core
(epp1.0) instead of domain-1.0.
domain-1.0 doesn't know op-codes.


epp-1.0 says:
   <!--
   The <transfer> command.  This is object-specific, and uses attributes
   to identify the requested operation.
   -->
     <complexType name="transferType">
       <sequence> 
         <any namespace="##other"/>
       </sequence>
       <attribute name="op" type="epp:transferOpType"
        use="required"/>
     </complexType>
     
  and:
  
     <simpleType name="transferOpType">
       <restriction base="token">
         <enumeration value="approve"/>
         <enumeration value="cancel"/> 
         <enumeration value="query"/>  
         <enumeration value="reject"/>  
         <enumeration value="request"/>  
       </restriction> 
     </simpleType>
     

domain-1.0 says:

    <!--
     Child elements of the <transfer> command.
     -->
       <complexType name="transferType">
         <sequence> 
           <element name="name" type="eppcom:labelType"/>
           <element name="period" type="domain:periodType"
            minOccurs="0"/>
           <element name="authInfo" type="domain:authInfoType"
            minOccurs="0"/>
         </sequence>
       </complexType>
       


Due to this fact its impossible to extend the transfer behavior to our
needs. Trying to modify domain-1.0 only doesn't help very much and even
epp-1.0 cannot be left untouched.


From our point of view there are two possible solutions for that:

The first one is to define a additional op-code "transfer op=init"
within epp-1.0.
This is not very nice because it doesn't solve the problem of inflexibility
of the transfer definition in epp-1.0.
And - yes - it doesn't have very much to do with the transfer concept 
mentioned in the RFC.


The second solution would be the complete move of the transfer definition
to the domain-1.0 document.

something like this:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
  <epp xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0
       epp-1.0.xsd">
    <command>
      <transfer>
        <domain:transfer op="request"
         xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0"
         xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0
         domain-1.0.xsd">
          <domain:name>example.com</domain:name>
   ...

 
This approach would give much more flexibility for different 
transfer scenarios, as they could be freely implemented within object
namespaces.


Are there any ideas how this transfer problem could be solved
still using the EPP RFCs?

I wonder if there are other registries which encountered problems due to the
very hard definition of the transfer.



regards,
Gerhard



-- 
Gerhard Winkler                    |  E-Mail: gerhard.winkler@univie.ac.at
Vienna University Computer Center  |
Universitaetsstrasse 7             |  Tel: +43 1 4277 14035
A-1010 Vienna, Austria             |  Fax: +43 1 4277 9140